Sunday, March 20, 2011

Love Wins?

If I were to do a video response to Rob Bell's Love Wins, I think the script would run something like this:

Several weeks ago I was looking over various blogs and articles in my feed reader. And there was an article linking to a video about a book that lots of people found compelling. They’d stop and leave comments, post blog articles, and preorder on Amazon. But not everybody found it that compelling. Somewhere in the course of the blogging somebody wrote something critical of the Rob Bell’s stance on hell.

Rob Bell has a stance on hell? He does? And he wrote about it and felt the need to let the rest of us know? Does everybody get to go to heaven? And will no one spend forever in hell? And if that’s the case, why do we need to believe anything about Jesus? If what you believe, what you say, what you do, or who you know doesn’t matter, why even bother believing in Jesus anyway? And what’s it matter what you believe about him?

And then there is the question behind the questions, the real question: What is God like? Because thousands or millions of people are going to be taught that the primary message—the center of the Gospel of Christ—is that we will all be saved. And so, what gets subtly sort of taught from Rob Bell is that God is not holy and just. But what kind of God is that; that He wouldn’t show Himself holy or just? How could that God ever be good? How could that God ever be trusted? And how could that ever be good news?

This is why Bell’s teachings won’t stand the test of time. It is an endless list of absurdities and inconsistencies; and they say: “If I’m going to heaven anyway, why would I ever want to be part of that?” See, what we believe about heaven and hell is incredibly important because it exposes what we believe about Who God is, and what God is like. What you discover in the Bible is so surprising, unexpected, and beautiful, that whatever we’ve been told or taught by Rob Bell, the good news is actually better than that; better than we could ever imagine.

The good news is that God is holy and just and has provided a way of salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf.